Free Star Wolves (The Tribes of Yggdrasil Book 1) by Hugh B. Long Page B

in a standard combat ready pose. He looked at her, and laughed. He was a very big man, older, but well muscled under a tight black uniform. He bore a bevy of scars on his sickly blueish face…but he had beautiful ice-blue eyes. Gina was almost mesmerized—until he attacked.
    He bridged the gap between them inhumanly fast, and instead of punching, threw his right hand toward her throat, fingers out, and connected. He now had a firm grip and began squeezing her windpipe. He just held her there and smiled hungrily, eyeing her ample female form. That was the first, and last time he would underestimate her. She was choking, but didn't panic. Gina’s hobby was mixed martial arts. She’d been in this kind of situation dozens of times, the difference was, what she normally couldn’t do in a competition or sparring, was perfectly fine here.
    She clawed his eyes hard. Hee stumbled back, but maintained his grip. His left hand went up to shield his eyes, and that was all the opening Gina needed. She grabbed the bottom of his right elbow with her left arm, pinching nerves, at the same time throwing her right elbow into his windpipe. She maintained her grip on his right elbow as he crumpled to the floor, then she hit him on the side of the face with her right forearm, several times in rapid succession. He was out for the count.
    “Yes, I do fight like a girl. Thank you very much!” she said, and stood up.
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    G ina dashed back to the cockpit, massaging her throat. She figured her first priority would be to call in the hijacking. As far as she knew, this was the first interstellar hijacking of an Earth starship. Why now, she wondered. And who were these two pale blue assholes? They looked a lot like Alfar, but she didn’t think the Alfar would ever do something like this. A rogue faction maybe?
    The Sparrow’s flight crew were still unconscious, so she keyed buttons on the comm panel and tried to hail New Midgard.
    “New Midgard, this is the Earth passenger transport Sparrow. Do you copy? Our ship has been attacked. There was an attempted hijacking. Please send a rescue vehicle to our transponder location. Over.”
    She didn’t expect a signal back for a few minutes—they were still on the edge of the Epsilon Eridani system, and a few light minutes from New Midgard.
    “Sparrow, this is New Midgard Transit Control. Did you say you were hi-jacked? Please repeat. Over.”
    “NMTC this is Sparrow . Affirmative. Two males attempted to hi-jack and capture passengers. Please assist immediately, over.” She waited for the response.
    As she stood, she heard a noise outside the cockpit. She poked her head out and saw a set of legs disappearing up into the ceiling. Her blood ran cold. She knew what was going to happen next, and she had to act fast!
    She looked down the aisle of the Sparrow and saw three passengers and the small Alfar lying there in between the next bulkhead. She heard an engine sound getting louder above her. Gina reached out to the nearest body, which happened to be the small Alfar, and pulled him into the cockpit, just as the hatch was automatically sealed.
    The Alfar vessel must have detached, leaving the compartment behind the cockpit open to vacuum. There were auto-sealing bulkheads every eight rows, so the other passengers should be safe, but the three people behind the cockpit bulkhead would be dead instantly.
    “Gods damn you!” she yelled, and kicked the Alfar on the ground, shaking her head.



Chapter 6
Planet: Ljossalfheim
    H al and his crew were exuberant after confirming the function of the objects, now rightly called bridge nodes , and were looking forward to being home after several months off-world, but their jubilation would turn out to be short-lived.
    Once the Halygen dropped out of hyperspace the crew immediately received a high priority message from Alfheim, ordering Hal to proceed directly to Saeran's quarters in Llangernyw. This made sense to the crew, who were all sure Saeran wanted updates